Hungry readers wanted: Octopus Literary Salon opens in Oakland

It started as a small gathering among likeminded literary friends in her living room some seven years ago. This week, Rebecca Grove turns that creative release from her day job into a full-time operation with the launch of Octopus Literary Salon.

Opening in Uptown Oakland at 2101 Webster Street, Octopus will function as a café and eatery during the day, serving coffee, Arizmendi pastries, and homemade granola and strata (veggie and meat) in the morning, and then salads, sandwiches, and roast chicken for lunch.

Octopus, however, seems to have as many identities as its namesake sea creature has arms. The space also contains a small, specialty bookshop. They’ll serve craft beer and wine into the evenings. And every night, Grove hopes to host some kind of live event, from comedy to book readings to kids’ theater to music, with the food helping fund the performance.

“It’s influenced by the European concept of a public house,” says Grove, an Oakland resident and former teacher and grant writer. “We wanted to invent something new, an interesting hybrid… that will integrate literature, art, music, and conversation into one intimate venue.”

There are already several events on the calendar, including a one-woman play, a comedy night, and several musical acts, to kick off Grove’s hybrid literary experiment at Octopus. But what’s up with the name?

“I just find the octopus to be the most interesting local animal,” she says. “They live in the Bay, and they’re this incredibly interesting and mysterious muse. A lot of people love the image and have been motivated to write about them—There’s all this lore surrounding the way the octopus has been presented in literature. So I thought it would be good representation of what we’re doing here.”